Variance Components for Age at First Calving and Yearling Weight When Accounting for Age Differences at Fixed Breeding Dates in a Contemporary Group

Abstract The ability of a heifer to calve earlier in a breeding season has implications on the economic success of heifers in a production system. Heifers that calve earlier in a calving season have increased calf performance, improved subsequent fertility, and a longer productive life in the herd. Production systems typically breed heifers during fixed breeding dates, with heifers of variable ages in the same contemporary group. The objective of this study was to determine if heifer yearling weight (YW) or age differences going into a fixed breeding period influenced the additive genetic variance of age at first calving (AFC) explained in a multi-breed population. Heifer fertility data were obtained from International Genetic Solutions. Females with exposure and calf production records were used to identify individuals calving between 630 and 810 days of age. Females with embryo transfer, multiple birth progeny, and an age differential (DIFF) greater than 100 days were excluded. Age differential was defined as the difference in days between an individual’s birth date and the earliest birth date of an animal in a defined contemporary group. Contemporary group was defined as; breeder, herd, year born, birth and yearling group. After data filtering, there were 149,350 calving records. A 3-generation pedigree file was used containing 365,637 animals, with 37,420 unique sires and 219,533 unique dams. Two bivariate multi-trait animal models for AFC and YW with random additive genetic and residual effects and fixed effects of contemporary group, breed proportion, and % retained hybrid vigor were used. The first model consisted of the aforementioned effects while the second model included DIFF as an additional fixed effect. Analyses were performed using ASReml 3.0. When DIFF was not included as a fixed effect, the additive, residual and phenotypic variances for AFC were 126.1, 456.8, and 582.9 d2, respectively, and the genetic correlation between AFC and YW was 0.36 ± 0.02. When DIFF was included as a fixed effect, the additive, residual, and phenotypic variances for AFC were 10.0, 326.0, and 336.0 d2, respectively. The genetic correlation between AFC and YW was 0.19 ± 0.04. In the absence of DIFF, the heritability estimates for AFC and YW were 0.22 ± 0.01 and 0.44 ± 0.01, respectively but were 0.03 ± 0.003 and 0.44 ± 0.01 respectively, when DIFF was included. Age differential was a significant effect on AFC at –0.86 (P < 0.0001). The low additive variance of AFC when accounting for DIFF suggests that the influence of a female's age going into a fixed breeding date explains much of the variation in AFC. The low heritability estimate for AFC and genetic correlation with YW suggests that selection for improved AFC will be difficult using this method and that producers should instead focus on improved management practices to ensure females calve earlier in a calving season.